R. Murray Schafer—composer, author, and educator—has been involved with many facets of the music community. In 1961 he co-organized the Ten Centuries Concerts which brought unfamiliar music, both old and new, to Toronto listeners. His many compositions for choir, orchestra, string quartet, etc., are often played in concert. 

Schafer has written many articles and books, the best known of which is his book The Tuning of the World, published in 1977 and now internationally recognized as the principal work bringing attention to the importance of the everyday sounds of the environment. It was in this book that Schafer coined the now-familiar term “soundscape.” The book followed Schafer’s experience with the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University between 1965 and 1975 when teams using portable recording equipment attempted to document the changing sounds of the world, though for practical reasons they were limited primarily to communities in North America and Europe. The researchers studied the relationships between people and their acoustic environments, and assessed the sociological, aesthetic, philosophical, and scientific significance of local soundscapes.

Schafer’s awareness of soundscape has had a significant influence on his music, and this is probably most evident in his Patria cycle, a series of twelve major works of music theatre. These works explore and incorporate mythologies, symbolism, and philosophies of ancient and contemporary cultures, and take place largely outside the concert hall. Locations such as a lakeshore at dawn, a forest, a garden, a fairgound, a train station, and a museum add their own acoustic personalities to the music.

R. Murray Schafer in Musicworks:

“Wilderness Lake, a conversation with R. Murray Schafer” by Hildegard Westerkamp, in Musicworks 15.
“Beyond Ra: R. Murray Schafer in Conversation” by Tina Pearson, in Musicworks 25.
“A Phantom of Opera: R. Murray Schafer's The Greatest Show” by Kathy Kennedy, in Musicworks 45.
“Confluence and Collaboration: Patria the Epilogue: And Wolf Shall Inherit the Moon” a series of two articles by Ellen Waterman in Musicworks 70 and 72. 

Musicworks articles by R. Murray Schafer include:

“Ten Centuries Concerts: a Recollection” in Musicworks 9.
“The Transformations of Water;” “Frozen Water;” and “The Acoustic Community” in Musicworks 25.
“For Composers to Become Acoustic Designers;” and “Music in the Cold” in Musicworks 26
“The Hi-Fi and the Lo-Fi Soundscape” and “Schizophonia” in Musicworks 28.
“Ursound” in Musicworks 29.

For further information visit:

www.patria.org
www.philmultic.com/home/patria8/phoenix.html